Heart Sutra

by Yan Lianke 阎连科, Carlos Rojas (Translator)

From “China’s foremost literary satirist” (Financial Times) comes a captivating new novel set at a religious training center in Beijing, focusing on the unlikely love story of a Buddhist nun and a Daoist priest

At the Religious Training Center on the campus of Beijing’s National Politics University, disciples of China’s five main religions—Buddhism, Daoism, Protestantism, Catholicism, and Islam—gather for a year of intensive study and training. In this hallowed yet jovial atmosphere, the institute’s two youngest disciples—Yahui, a Buddhist jade nun, and Gu Mingzheng, a Daoist master—fall into a fast friendship that might bloom into something more.

This year, however, the worldly Director Gong has an exciting new he has organized tug-of-war competitions between the religions. The fervor of competition offers excitement for the disciples, as well as a lucrative source of fundraising, but Yahui looks on the games with her beloved mentor collapsed after witnessing one of these competitions. Gu Mingzheng, meanwhile, has his own mission at the institute, centering on his search for his unknown father. Soon it becomes clear that corruption is seeping ever more deeply into the foundation of the institute under Director Gong’s watch, and Yahui and Gu Mingzheng will be forced to ask themselves whether it is better to stay committed to an increasingly fraught faith or to return to secular life forever—and nothing less than the fate of the gods itself is at stake.

Illustrated throughout with beautiful original papercuts, animated by Yan Lianke’s characteristically incisive sense of humor, Heart Sutra is a stunning and timely novel that highlights the best and worst in mankind and interrogates the costs of division.

Genres: Fiction, China, Literary Fiction, Asian Literature, Novels, Literature, Contemporary

402 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Yan Lianke (simplified Chinese: 阎连科; traditional Chinese: 閻連科; pinyin: Yán Liánkē; Wade–Giles: Yen Lien-k'e, born 1958) is a Chinese writer of novels and short stories based in Beijing. His work is highly satirical, which has resulted in some of his most renowned works being banned.

He started writing in 1978 and his works include: Xia Riluo (夏日落), Serve the People (为人民服务), Enjoyment (受活), and Dream of Ding Village (丁庄梦). He has also published more than ten volumes of short stories. Enjoyment, which was published in 2004, received wide acclaim in China. His literature has been published in various nations, and some of his works have been banned in China.

(Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Dab · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf. I tried to like it, but this book was definitely not my cup of tea. This must be one of the most boring things I’ve ever read.

The book tells a love story of two young students of a college for all main religions in China; a Buddhist nun and a Daoist priest. It sounds very interesting and maybe the story is not even that bad, but the emotionless, detached writing makes going through this book a real chore.

I think the writing was supposed to be funny in a dry, satirical way but sadly it didn’t work. This book could use some life because it reads like a police report. Maybe the translation is the problem? I’ve seen plenty of great books ruined by poor translation. Or maybe it’s supposed to be that way but I am just completely missing the point? Maybe I’m missing the cultural context needed to understand it?

There is no flow whatsoever and every single scene is dragging. To give you an idea, there’s a scene describing one of the main characters having a bowl of soup. She is having the soup for Over. Five. Long. Pages.😴

I really couldn’t care less…

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

[endrju · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Chinese kind of campus novel. There's the style with its proclamation-like quality, which at the same time makes the text distant while making the events that transpire somehow grandiose no matter how inconsequential and hence emotionally more powerful than expected. Then there are the topics, and in this novel Lianke's somehow more subdued, even though there are a few gruesome scenes and the ending is rather biting (for believers). And there's the cultural context, which I'm sure I only half-understood - where's Confucianism, for example? As always with Yan Lianke, I'm of several minds and that's a good thing.

[Rae Lanczak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark, yet absolutely hilarious. Sometimes the humor was a bit on the nose, but still made me laugh. Yan Lianke has mastered the art of satire. The way religion, politics and hypocrisy intermingle was done so well!

[vetathebooksurfer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart Sutra by Yan Lianke

TW: mutilating one’s genitals (non-graphic), brief self-harm and blood (graphic)

The author himself compares his book to Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavilion or Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, and while most of these books are serious, this is a satiric version of religious scholars’ life narration.

While modern life is rather secular, many societies treat religion with at-most respect, but what if respect itself is calculated in upgrading a centre to university, providing bigger salary the higher your scholar achievements are, or making friends with higher authorities?

I have to mention that some of the religion points might be critical, but how can it be otherwise, when your protagonists are naive school-girl from a village in the middle of nowhere, corrupt boss and social climber boy?

The Buddhist orphan school-girl suddenly finds herself with no guidance, while her shifu is hospitalized, eventually falling for a Daoist boy, apparently an out-of-wedlock child of an authority, but which one - no one knows. The religious centre at the National Politics University in Beijing welcomes disciples from five religions: Buddhists, Daoists, Catholics, Protestants and Muslims, being the most popular religions in China. While the authority-figure is extremely power-hungry, he didn’t of anything better rather than provide a research paper on athletics impact on cross-religion communication.

Thus all the disiples regardless of genre are urge to participate in tug-of-war faculty championship…

Between people rooting for the one god than for the other, entering Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery at provincial level, rather than on prefecture level, because finding one’s father among higher-ups is surely better, a Buddhist stopping at nothing to get an apartment in the district, where Buddhists were once imprisoned, the narration flows quite okay. And definitely thanks to both author and translator proving separate notes at the end of the novel, even an atheist like me gets the point.

Warning: I watched closely on the Muslims portrayal in this book, ultimately we’ll see that in authors opinion having a general life of hardship and being all clean and goody-goody is both unappealing. Eventually we learn that every person in this narration has both messed up at some point and had a chance at redemption.


Ян Лянкэ «Сутра Сердца»

Этот китайский писатель уже заслужил себе репутацию сатирическими рассказами, хоть я встречаю его впервые. Если в «Братьях Карамазовых» убийца сам приходит к подозреваемому, и они вдвоем ищут бога, то здесь представители пяти религий, собранных под крышей религиозного центра при пекинском политическом университете, ищут уважения и признания своих заслуг.

Автор открыто говорит, что современное ему общество, хоть и весьма светское, но религию уважает. И как, спрашивается, светскому обществу подобающим образом уважать религию, если само уважение исчисляется в ежемесячной прибавке за получение академической степени, повышении центра до факультета или быть на короткой ноге с районными властями?

Конечно, религии предстают в романе не в самом лучшем свете, но какой она еще может быть, если ваши протагонисты а) наивная девчонка из деревни, которой хочется квартиру в столице, б) мальчишка-карьерист, в) начальник-взяточник? Причем, если девушка-буддистка как оступилась, так и встала на путь истинный, пацан и их начальник будут дурака валять еще долго.

Внутри книги система такая: если директор вашего центра получает академическую степень, центр повышается до факультета, получая соответствующее финансирование, возможности для учащихся, повышается престиж заведения и т.д. Директору пришло в голову написать работу о влиянии спорта на межрелигиозное взаимодействие.

Таким образом, в центре проводятся чемпионаты по перетягиванию каната между буддистами, даосистами, мусульманами, католиками и протестантами.

Дурь? Ну да, до того момента, когда, через наивную буддистку, будущую монахиню и сироту, мы начинаем постигать, как современный, светский мир соприкасается с религиозным. Как последователи одних религий почитают за счастье взваливать на себя все больше трудностей, другие почитают за добродетель оставаться белоручками, третьи идут к поставленной цели, отрицая всякую человечность в мире, где важны только земля и небо.

[Text Publishing]

The following book reviews have been shared by Text Publishing – publisher of Heart Sutra

‘Picaresque, but with serious matters of faith, love, and political wrangling at its fast-beating heart.’
Kirkus Reviews

‘Intriguing satire…[Yan Lianke’s] barbs against organised religion frequently hit their targets…[T]here is plenty to admire.’
Booklist

‘Heart Sutra is a warm-hearted, if not gentle, satire that skewers religious institutions without mocking faith itself...by its end, it has moved through absurdity, darkness, and body horror into a strange and flickering form of hope...a deeply satisfying read...Yan's storytelling has a luminous, irrepressible quality...in its darkness, it shines.’
NPR

‘Extremely intriguing…Glimpses of early Salman Rushdie.’
RNZ Nine to Noon

‘In the realm of Olga Tokarczuk…There are a lot of things that I really love about this book.’
95bFM Loose Reads

‘Complex and multi-layered; simultaneously a love story, a commentary on contemporary China, and a satire…Lianke’s writing is lush, surreal, and not afraid to laugh at the absurdity of existence. He excels in creating a highly sensual world in which weather, food, and surroundings have a life of their own and divine beings may appear at any moment.’
Otago Daily Times

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart Sutra is my first book by Yan Lianke, I didn’t know anything about his role as satirist and social critic. I liked it and intend to read more by this author.
I have been studying Buddhism for several years, including regularly chanting the Heat Sutra, so I was initially drawn to the title , and I like the cover illustration lol. Maybe having some interest in Buddhism helped me better appreciate some of the aspects of the characters dilemmas, but I don’t think it’s necessary.
The book is on one level a love story, but the love is not so much between the two young protagonists as between all people and their chosen (or not chosen) religious deities.
Its rare and interesting to get this kind of look into how religion and politics are woven together to influence the behavior of Chinese citizens. The author’s irony and satire makes the book fun to read. I loved the overriding theme of the tension between embracing a philosophy of love and knowledge that your religion is the chosen one. Ha! what a dilemma! Added to that is the manipulation of spirituality for political and financial gain. It’s very satisfying to see a light shown on that.
The author’s descriptions are flowery and beautiful. I haven’t read enough of him to know if that’s his usual style, or reminiscent of Buddhist sutras,
The paper cutting illustrations are amazing-I liked the way they illustrated a legend running along side the plot of the book and were created by the main character.
Heart Sutra is not the easiest read, but I learned something about life in China, and something about my own spirituality from it.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yahui was found on the doorstep of a rural Buddhist convent and has known nothing else for most of her eighteen years of life. Her lack of worldliness makes her a perfect vehicle for Yan Lianke’s satirical Heart Sutra, which explores the way that five of China’s religions—Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism—have had to contort themselves to survive the country’s political order and corruption. The uneasy relationship between the religions and Chinese communism leaves Yahui struggling to decide if the deities are real, if the secular world is a better fit, and which set of rules she should follow to be a good person...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.

[Pamela Samson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not a light read, but I enjoyed it a lot. It's a great work of contemporary Chinese literature that examines the relationship between religion and secular life, as well as the give and take between the sanctioned religions of China and the State. I loved the descriptions of Beijing and the role this city played in the book as well. I had to push through in some parts, but the unique ending was very memorable. And the papercuts!!! That alone made me glad I picked it up.

[agniesia · Rating 4 out of 5]

nie zapowiadała się dobrze, ale po przeczytaniu stwierdzam że było warto

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

*I received an eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I don’t feel comfortable publicly rating this because I don’t think I am smart enough for this book, and because my ratings tend to weigh more heavily on enjoyment I don’t want to give this a low rating because I felt dumb. I did appreciate the insight into this author’s perception of Chinese society and spent quite some time thinking about this book and how it related to my own experience with Chinese culture.

This is a darkly satirical novel told in a fragmented manner. On the surface it’s a love story between a Buddhist jade nun and a Daoist master, but it’s also a commentary on corruption and division and faith and organized religion and humanity.

The author’s note and translator’s note at the end did help me appreciate what this book is trying to do, so I do recommend checking those out to see if this might be a book for you. I also loved the paper cuts interwoven through the story and how that legend connected to the rest of the story.

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

China's five major religions engage in tugs of war on physical, economic, spiritual levels against the backdrop of the affluence and corruption of contemporary Chinese society. The novel combines satire, realism, and some wonderful papercuts that bring in the mythic dimension of twin pilgrimages by Daoist and Buddhist legendary figures. Didn't strike deeply, but a fascinating stylistic and thematic exercise.

[AB Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Potential spoilers:

This work, while not my first discovery of Yan Lianke’s writing, represents my first introduction to his literary concept of mythorealism, defined in the book’s accompanying Translator’s Note as “not a bridge offering direct access to truth and reality…instead it relies on imaginings, allegories, myths, legends, dreamscapes, and magical transformations that grow out of the soil of daily life and social reality.”

The book stands as a powerful example of this style of writing. Specifically, two strengths stand out: 1) its series of interconnections, the significance of which is made clear through efficient use of the imagining of various deities, their mythical presence as unseen actors eventually made explicit toward the novel’s end, and, 2) the incorporation of the art of paper cutting, all designed specifically for this work, which mirrors the love story of Yahui and Gu Mingzheng through parallel representations of the Boddhisatva Guanyin and Daoist master Laozi through their own tale of nascent love and connection. Haunting, mythical and poetic, the cuttings are a unique artistic addition, and serve as both foreshadowing and an individualised narrative device.

While the love story features, the main foci are the satirical representations of school leadership, the divisions between the religions themselves, and the compromises both protagonists must make to either maintain purity or “get ahead.” The concept of “forgetting” also proves a concise criticism of the methods employed that minimise actual adherence to the practice of faith. Still, the story never wanders into the arena of whether it is good to have faith or not, instead featuring the personal and political ramifications of a very specific type of “forgetting.” Executing this through the uniqueness of his mythorealism makes the book more memorable, as it features competing “truths” and “realities” at the centre of religious discourse in mainland China today. Fascinating.

4 stars. A fabulous book, which may be made even more relevant to readers through examination of an April 2024 article found on Literary Hub (link below) which excerpts from Yan’s recently published Sound and Silence: My Experience with China and Literature, in which the author minimises the tendency of critics and readers to describe him primarily as China’s Most Censored Author.

https://lithub.com/yan-lianke-wants-y...

[Marvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

How strange! Strange can be good, of course, if it reflects creativity or uniqueness, but I did not find this strangeness rewarding. The novel is set in a “religious training center” of the “National Politics University” in Beijing, where Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Daoists, and Buddhists study side by side in classes such as “Socialist Characteristics of Chinese Religion” and “Tutorials on Marxist-Leninist Religion,” though we rarely see the students in the classroom or discussing the content of their classes. The “students” appear not to be young people but experienced religious leaders seeking additional “training” in order to advance to become “masters” of their respective traditions (though, important as this would seem to be, this, like many other aspects of the center, is never really clear). The premise appears to offer significant promise, but, rather than fulfilling the intellectual promise of the premise, the author focuses on trivialities, hypocrisies, bureaucratic follies, and fundraising schemes. Yet this is not effective satire, either. I admit that there’s probably much here that went over my head. In particular, the ”Nameless” character was a complete mystery to me. The author’s elliptical Afterword, in which he attempts to explain what he was trying to do in the novel, noting that it’s about what happens when holiness and secularity meet, is not much help. The Translator’s Note is somewhat more helpful, but the novel remains mostly a mysterious muddle for me.

[Malcolm Keating · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange mood predominates this novel, which I couldn’t quite place. It is wry, grotesque, ironic, fantastical, and I wasn’t certain that these entirely coherent, but I also wanted to keep reading to find out. Having just been in Beijing for a kind of inter-religious and cross-cultural conference probably helped my appreciation of the book. I’ll definitely check out other books by the same author.

[Valerie Kettering · Rating 1 out of 5]

Brutally honest review: this book was tough to get through. I liked the premise, but I think a lot was lost in translation, which meant the prose themselves weren’t fun to read and the significance of some events was lost on me. There was also some disturbing imagery, which was unexpected. I liked the paper cut storylines interwoven with the main text, though!

[Andie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was such an odd read. I think I liked it? The cover is stunning and 100% why I originally bought it.

Some of the discussion around how different religions interact with each other was interesting and told in a satirical way that made it entertaining.

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is such a unique book, I don’t think I’ll ever read something exactly like this again. Loved the ending!

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a bit confused and quite frankly bored until the end.

[Emily]

China

[Nevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exploration of religious amnesia tug-of-warring against secular triumphalism; a paper cut out where the spaces that are missing are just as important as the paper that is there.

[Kaitlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like it and understand it but it was too bizarre and had too many moments that left me feeling sick inside.

[Kate Picher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty dang wierd. Likeable though.

[Adam Reynoso · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF - I tried, but I could not get into the writing style. It’s interesting, because the synopsis sounds intriguing and like a fun satire, but the structure and style were difficult to get past.

[coffeesque · Rating 3 out of 5]

Classic Yan Lianke, although a bit more dryly mirthful.

[Prasanta · Rating 3 out of 5]

good read.

[Claire Binkley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think my favourite parts were the ink blots I couldn't quite understand.

[Diane C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

So much anticipation of reading this book, but a bit of a mish mash.

[Yancy Craft · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was interesting, but the papercut illustrations deserve a higher rating. Well worth the read just for those.

[Li · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF at the 30% mark. There wasn't anything wrong with the book, it was just a total snooze fest. Maybe something got lost in translation.

[alex cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novel so strange and nonlinear it’s got me wondering if the author is a genius or an actual crazy person. I can’t tell you if I loved this or hated it, but I couldn’t put it down!